Frequently Asked Questions

Simply click the "Sign in with Google" button on the initial screen. The application uses your Google account for authentication to ensure your data is secure and private. No one else can access your planner data.

There are three essential setup steps in the "Control Panel" at the top:

• Teacher ID: This is a unique identifier to save and load your data. Your Google email is automatically used, but you can change it if needed.
• Week 1 Start Date: Set the ISO date (YYYY-MM-DD) for the first Monday of your "Week 1". This is crucial for the planner to correctly calculate alternating weeks (W1/W2).
• Import Timetable (XLSX): Click "Choose File", select your school-provided timetable in XLSX format, and then click "Parse Timetable". The app will automatically read your W1 and W2 schedules.

After these steps, click "Save to Sheets" to back up your initial setup.

The behavior depends on your device:

• On a Desktop/Laptop (with a mouse): Simply single-click on any lesson slot in the grid. This will open the note editor modal.
• On a Tablet or Phone (touch screen): You need to double-tap the lesson slot to open the editor. A single tap is used to scroll the sidebar to that specific lesson's note.

This distinction is designed to improve usability on different devices.

• On touch devices, it's common to accidentally tap things while scrolling. Requiring a double-tap to edit prevents the note editor from popping up unintentionally. The single-tap is reserved for a more common action on mobile: quickly viewing a note's details in the sidebar without opening a full-screen editor.
• On desktops, a single-click is a clear, intentional action, so it's used as a direct shortcut to open the editor.

The note editor has two separate text boxes for different purposes:

• Technician Order: This is for specific requests that need to be sent to a lab technician (e.g., "Please provide 10 beakers, 1 Bunsen burner, and hydrochloric acid"). This text is included in the weekly export.
• Teacher Notes: This is your private space for lesson planning, reminders, or reflections (e.g., "Remember to check homework from last week," or "Focus on slide 15, students found it difficult"). This text is not included in the technician export.

The "Place Order" button is a way for you to manually track the status of a technician request. Clicking it toggles the status:

• When it says "Place Order", the request is considered pending.
• When you click it, it changes to "✓ Order Placed". This marks the request as completed (e.g., you've emailed it or printed it).

This status is important for the weekly export, which only includes pending orders.

In the sidebar, click the "Export Weekly Orders" button. This opens a modal showing all pending technician orders for the current week, grouped by the technician's email address (which you can set per class).

You have two options:

• Copy All to Clipboard: This copies a formatted text of all orders, which you can then paste into an email.
• Generate Printable View: This opens a new browser tab with a clean, print-friendly "hub" page. From there, you can open separate, neatly formatted order sheets for each technician.

Important: After you export using either method, all the included orders will be automatically marked as "✓ Order Placed" to prevent them from appearing in future exports. An "Undo" button will appear briefly if you make a mistake.

When you open the note editor for any lesson, you will see fields for that specific class code (e.g., 10A-SCI).

• Classroom Link: Paste the Google Classroom URL into the "Classroom Link" field and click "Save Link". A small Classroom icon will now appear on every slot for that class, giving you a one-click shortcut.
• Technician Email: Enter the relevant technician's email address in the "Technician Email" field and click "Save Email". This email is used to group orders in the weekly export. You can add multiple emails separated by a comma.

Yes. In the note editor, you'll find a color picker. Select a color for the current class and click "Save Color". This custom color will be applied as a border to all lesson slots for that class, making your timetable easier to read at a glance.

Use the navigation controls in the header:

• ‹ Prev and Next › buttons move you one week at a time.
• This Week jumps you back to the current week.
• The date input lets you jump to a specific date. The planner will automatically show the week that contains your selected date.

The planner automatically fetches public holidays for Hong Kong. On a holiday, the entire day's column in the timetable will be grayed out and display the name of the holiday (e.g., "Christmas Day"). You cannot add notes to these days.

Double-click on a day's header (e.g., "Monday (Oct 27)"). A prompt will appear asking for an event name. Type the name and press Enter. The day will now be marked as a special event, overriding the regular timetable. To edit or delete it, simply double-click the header again.

This can happen if a holiday or school event disrupts the normal alternating week cycle. To fix it, navigate to the first week that is incorrect.

Click on the "Week X 🔄" text in the top-left corner of the timetable grid. This will manually flip the parity for that week (e.g., from W1 to W2) and all subsequent weeks will now alternate correctly from that new starting point.

Your data is saved in two places:

1. Locally in your browser: Every change you make (adding a note, changing a color) is instantly saved to your browser's local storage. This means your data persists even if you close the tab or lose internet connection.
2. On Google Sheets (as a backup): When you click "Save to Sheets", all your data is sent to a private Google Sheet linked to your account. This is your permanent backup.

• Use Save to Sheets periodically to back up your work, especially after making significant changes like importing a new timetable or adding many notes. Changes are also auto-saved to Sheets every few seconds.
• Use Load from Sheets if you are using a new computer/browser, or if you feel your local data is corrupted or out of sync. This will overwrite your local data with the latest version from your Google Sheets backup.